Two Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers are among the 61 national recipients of the Energy Department’s Early Career Research Program awards for 2013.
Marian Jandel won for his proposal, “New Data on Neutron Reactions Relevant to Basic and Applied Science,” selected by the Office of Nuclear Physics.
Nathan M. Urban will be supported for his work on “Beyond the Black Box: Combining System and Model Dynamics to Learn About Climate Uncertainties,” selected by the Office of Biological & Environmental Research.
The Early Career Research Program, now in its fourth year, is designed to bolster the nation’s scientific workforce by providing support to exceptional researchers during the crucial early career years, when many scientists do their most formative work.
“The Early Career Research Program reflects the Administration’s strong commitment to creating jobs and new industries through scientific innovation,” said Acting Energy Secretary Poneman. “Strong support of scientists early in their careers is crucial to sustaining America’s scientific workforce and assuring U.S. leadership in discovery and innovation for many years to come.”
“Marian and Nathan are excellent examples of the intellectual vitality here at Los Alamos,” lab director Charlie McMillan said. “The early career awards are a great honor for them and the Laboratory. I congratulate them both and look forward to seeing results of their research.”
Under the program, researchers based at the Department’s national laboratories will get $500,000 per year to cover year-round salary plus research expenses.
Jandel received a doctorate in nuclear physics in 2003 from Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia. During his PhD he was a visiting scientist at Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, JINR, Dubna, Russia, where he studied ternary fission and heavy ion fusion-fission nuclear reactions leading to superheavy elements. He then became a post-doc at the Cyclotron Institute, Texas A&M University, where he was involved in the research of nuclear reaction mechanisms at intermediate energies and radioactive ion beam production.
Urban received his Ph.D. in computational condensed matter physics in 2006 from the Pennsylvania State University. He changed his research focus to climate prediction and uncertainty quantification with postdoctoral appointments in geosciences at Penn State and public and international affairs at Princeton University. He joined Los Alamos in December 2011 in the Energy Security Center and now resides in Computational Physics and Methods.